Today's Fruit Work

Registered

Safeway has "black" seedless grapes for 88 cents a pound. We stopped in, and only 2 bags were there, about 2# each, they must have gone fast! Asked a young man stocking produce, who said he had "just filled the bin". He went over, gave us the "high sign", then disappeared, to return with a cart having two cardboard boxes containing about 20 bags each. As I grabbed a box, he seemed surprised. Told him I make wine out of them. Then he looked even more surprised! Hearing the word "wine" seemed to really pique his interest. We chatted a bit, he went back to work, and we checked out. The check-out lady was less than surprised by someone buying 24 lbs. of grapes, and said little.

My wife (and I too) was surprised by the large size of some of them. She suggested a few pics, to be included here. It took about an hour to de-stem them, and wash them. Total volume was about 4 gallons of fruit, before crushing. They will yield 8 gallons of, hopefully, nice dark red wine. Currently, a batch of pink is cookin', but I really like the dark colors best. As luck would have it, sugar (the other cost factor) was on sale at $1.99 per 4 lb. bag. This batch will consume 16 lbs. The math is simple: the product will come out at under $4.00 per gallon (the yeast and water = no cost).

When I was a kid, only Thompson grapes were seedless; my mother loved them. "Black" grapes were commonly Concord; every grape type was identified by name. Today, they have apparently "created" seedless grapes of all colors and types, and have dropped the names, at retail level, anyway. Probably GMO'd these little gems, but I suspect the harmful effects of that are negated by the process of turning that sugar into Alcohol!

Registered

My father-in-law used to make muscadine wine out of the muscadine grapes he would grow. I can't say it was a very good wine since it had a tart, vinegary taste to it. But my father-in-law did tell me if I drank some it would help me get pregnant. So I did have a small bit of it....and a few months later I was pregnant with my first child.

About Us

The SENIORSonly CLUB (Seniors Only Club) is an online discussion forum for people fifty years old and up. Run by seniors for seniors, both senior citizens and baby boomers are encouraged to join us. Registration is free, but required for participation in forum discussions. Please register using a first name and a last name, although they need not be your actual name.